What we do

Lupfe Ltd. is an engineering company that designs and develops high power density ICE-electric hybrid propulsion system for eVTOL cargo drones. Providing advantages for aircrafts with a more environmentally friendly solution.

Co-founders

History of the company

A couple of years ago a big multinational company asked the professorship of our university to choose an engine from the market for their EHPS development that was aimed for use in LSA class fixed-wing aircrafts. By this time Mr. Pfeiffer and Mr. Lukács were investigating the opportunities which ICE would be capable for their own hybrid electric unmanned EVTOL concept that was in preparation for development. For this reason our team was tasked to do the job. While we made a recommendation without any significant difficulty for the company's fixed-wing requirements based on our research, in our case in the terms of the complex technical, market and environmental requirements of the EVTOL operation, we faced an obstacle. After we researched the entire engine market to find a suitable item which could be practical to drive a generator with or without remodeling, the results led us to design an engine from scratch specifically to this application as a first step.

Lupfe was established and Mr. Kocsis has joined to the company as an angel investor.  A year later we made a contract with Hiventures Zrt. to invest in our company. We had to make a choice between the EVTOL and the ICE-electric hybrid propulsion system designing due to the limits of the available financial possibilities. There were more promising EVTOL aircraft developments in progress at that time, but no one has dealt with the EHPS under 300 kW performance. After we considered the facts, on one hand we realized the problem that there is no suitable innovative piston engine with more ecofriendly design on the market, and on the other hand, we turned our focus and resources only into our strengths, therefore we've chosen the internal combustion engine design and canceled the further EVTOL aircraft design.

In the next years some experienced engineers from the field of internal combustion engines who worked on various engine projects has been organized by Lupfe to jointly design with the co-founders the 0th prototype for the technical validation. 

We made a first round market research about the demand. The result was that more EVTOL developer need the product, but the timeframe they wanted was an impossible challenge in the terms of our financial background. However still no EHPS under 300 kW was introduced with that properties into the market for EVTOL applications so far.

Five years later from the beginnings, with some delay due to the challenges that recently happened in the world and the limited financial background, the prototype finally has been technically validated. The first big step for a modern, more environmentally friendly and high power dense hybrid-electric propulsion system has been made.